Chalkboards have been popping up all over in parties over the past few years and I love them! Mr. Lemon and I have a built-in chalkboard in our kitchen, but I really wanted a large, portable chalkboard for parties, so I set about making one from an upcycled Goodwill find…

My inspiration for this project came from Your Home Based Mom, who found a HUGE frame to make into her chalkboard. Mine isn’t quite as large, but I really love it! When looking at frames, I was very hopeful to find artwork that I could paint right over to avoid purchasing a wood board to fit inside the frame. I totally lucked out with my find!

Not only was this piece large, but I loved the thick, textured frame, which I knew would still be interesting once painted white. Not only that, but the “painted” artwork was really some sort of print straight onto a completely flat board (this is where Mr. Lemon was thinking that if we took it to Antiques Roadshow, we might have a winner…I painted it anyway). You might notice that I forgot to take a before photo until I was already started! Oops!

The frame took three coats of paint – I simply used extra trim paint from the basement that we always have on hand. Then, I painted on two coats of chalkboard paint from Rustoleum and primed it with a coat of chalk.

For the first party (ABC School Party) that I used the chalkboard, I wrote on it with a chalk pen. I was able wipe off the writing with a damp cloth straight away while I perfected the message (this took longer than I’d like to admit!), and the pen stayed really well during transport to the party, during the party, and transport home. Then it continued to stay on really well when I tried to clean it off…with vinegar, dishsoap, wet wipes, and every other idea the interwebs could think up. After more online searching, I realized that chalk pens are not intended to be used on chalkboard painted items. Duly noted, interwebs! And so, I had to re-paint before using it again. Which is super easy and I would still use the chalk pen again if I needed to transport the chalkboard already written up.

However, the second time I used it for a party, I decided to just use chalk instead :) Please check out this entire party at Spaceships and Laserbeams today, where I participated in their Boy Bash Challenge with their amazing baseball collection!

12 Responses to DIY Chalkboard Project

Love your chalkboard and thanks for linking to my post. I just found another great old frame at Goodwill that I am turning into a chalkboard this week. I was wondering about chalk pens so appreciate reading about your experience with them.